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. 2020 Feb 3;11(1):667.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-14279-8.

Exceptionally low likelihood of Alzheimer's dementia in APOE2 homozygotes from a 5,000-person neuropathological study

Collaborators, Affiliations

Exceptionally low likelihood of Alzheimer's dementia in APOE2 homozygotes from a 5,000-person neuropathological study

Eric M Reiman et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

Each additional copy of the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's dementia, while the APOE2 allele is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's dementia, it is not yet known whether APOE2 homozygotes have a particularly low risk. We generated Alzheimer's dementia odds ratios and other findings in more than 5,000 clinically characterized and neuropathologically characterized Alzheimer's dementia cases and controls. APOE2/2 was associated with a low Alzheimer's dementia odds ratios compared to APOE2/3 and 3/3, and an exceptionally low odds ratio compared to APOE4/4, and the impact of APOE2 and APOE4 gene dose was significantly greater in the neuropathologically confirmed group than in more than 24,000 neuropathologically unconfirmed cases and controls. Finding and targeting the factors by which APOE and its variants influence Alzheimer's disease could have a major impact on the understanding, treatment and prevention of the disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

E.B.L. receives royalties from UpToDate, and the other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Percent free from Alzheimer’s dementia.
Kaplan–Meier curves were generated from Alzheimer’s dementia cases and cognitively unimpaired non-AD controls in the neuropathologically confirmed group. Y-axis represents the percentage of persons with each APOE genotype in the neuropathologically confirmed group who remained free from Alzheimer’s dementia. X-axis denotes age at death for controls and age at onset of cases, while replacing with age at death when age at onset was unavailable.

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